" ... one of my neighbors, an old French woman, cried and begged me not to go back to a country that treated Negroes as they had seen in the newspapers ... "

I was pleased to know that something was being done to improve the living conditions of Black people in the South. I had had no connections to the South – no relatives there; but, I had heard of the many atrocities committed there. Our Black publications provided details of the atrocities and I remember the murder of Emmitt Till, a Black teenager from Chicago whose mutilated body was found and displayed in an open casket.

I was very happy to hear about the successful Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. However, it was very unsettling to read and see the civil rights protests and confrontations on television.

I remember living in France when the students were blocked from entering into the Little Rock High School and the need for federal protection to be provided. When I was planning my return to the USA in 1958, one of my neighbors, an old French woman, cried and begged me not to go back to a country that treated Negroes as they had seen in the newspapers. I consoled her by telling her that it was not like that in Chicago.

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